As we near the lockout — coming soon to an NHL near you — some news items are leaking about where different players could end up going or not going based on their contract status and various rules. While the KHL has defined a tough set of rules for NHLers potentially jumping to the Russia’s top league, most of the other leagues around Europe won’t have quite the same hurdles to jump through. One of those is the top-tier Danish league, Oddset Ligaen, where the Herning Blue Fox are looking to lure the Isles’ Frans Nielsen and Ottawa’s Peter Regin, according to a report on Aoh.dk. Nielsen played for Herning in 2000-01 prior to being drafted by the Islanders in 2002.

At Herning Blue Fox is already the case. The dream is to get the club’s ‘own’ NHL stars, Peter Regin and Frans Nielsen home.

– It would be a shame to let such a chance go our nose over, says Blue Fox-chairman Claus Sørensen.

Economic challenge

The biggest challenge for a club like Blue Fox – and the other Danish clubs – is the economy. First, there is the salary that NHL players should have, and worst of all there is the question of insurance.

It is dogs expensive to insure NHL players. A player who Frans Nielsen believed to cost up to 200,000 dollars a month – just in insurance.

It’s an interesting cost-benefit question for a Euro club that can’t easily afford NHL players. On the one hand, you could bring home one of the country’s biggest stars for part, or all, of a season. On the flip side, it’s going to break your bank.

As for John Tavares, there isn’t a full blown report suggesting he could go overseas but rather a passing quote from an interview this morning with Denis Gorman. It seems to be just an aside in a CBA conversation but it’s worth noting nonetheless.